“You know, all their nonsense about finding Happily Ever After.”
“So that makes you ‘Nevers’?” said Sophie, remembering the lettered columns in the stair room.
“Short for ‘Nevermore,’” Hester reveled. “Paradise for Evildoers. We’ll have infinite power in Nevermore.”
“Control time and space,” said Anadil.
“Take new forms,” said Hester.
“Splinter our souls.”
“Conquer death.”
“Only the wickedest villains get in,” said Anadil.
“And the best part,” said Hester. “No other people. Each villain gets their own private kingdom.”
“Eternal solitude,” said Anadil.
“Sounds like misery,” said Sophie.
“Other people are misery,” said Hester.
“Agatha would love it here,” Sophie murmured.
“Gavaldon … is that by Pifflepaff Hills?” Dot said airily.
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, it’s not near anything,” Sophie moaned. She held up her schedule, “SOPHIE OF WOODS BEYOND” at its top. “Gavaldon’s beyond the woods. Surrounded by it on all sides.”
“Woods Beyond?” said Hester.
“Who’s your king?” asked Dot.
“We don’t have a king,” Sophie said.
“Who’s your mother?” asked Anadil.
“She’s dead,” Sophie said.
“And your father?” asked Dot.
“He’s a mill worker. These questions are quite personal—”
“And what fairy-tale family is he from?” Anadil asked.
“And now they’re just plain odd. No one’s family is a fairy tale. He’s from a normal family with normal faults. Like every one of your fathers.”
“I knew it,” Hester said to Anadil.
“Knew what?” said Sophie.
“Readers are the only ones this stupid,” Anadil said to Hester.
Sophie’s skin burned. “I’m sorry, but I’m not the stupid one if I’m the only person here who can read, so why don’t you look in the mirror, that is if you could actually find one—”
Reader.
Why didn’t anyone here seem homesick? Why did they all swim towards the wolves in the moat instead of fleeing for their lives? Why didn’t they cry for their mothers or try to escape the snakes at the gate? Why did they all know so much about this school?
“What fairy-tale family is he from?”
Sophie’s eyes found Hester’s nightstand. Next to a vase of dead flowers, a claw-shaped candle, and a stack of books—Outsmarting Orphans, Why Villains Fail, Frequent Witch Mistakes—was a knurled wooden picture frame. Inside was a child’s clumsy painting of a grotesque witch in front of a house.
A house made of gingerbread and candy.
“Mother was naive,” said Hester, picking up the frame. Her face struggled with the memory. “An oven? Please. Stick them on a grill. Avoids complications.” Her jaw hardened. “I’ll do better.”
Sophie’s eyes shifted to Anadil and her stomach plummeted. Her favorite storybook ended with a witch rolled in a barrel of nails until all that remained was her bracelet made of little boys’ bones. Now that bracelet was clasped on her roommate’s wrist.
“Does know her witches, doesn’t she,” Anadil leered. “Granny would be flattered.”
Sophie whirled to a poster above Dot’s bed. A handsome man in green screaming as an executioner’s axe sliced into his head.
WANTED:
ROBIN HOOD
Dead or Alive (Preferably Dead)
By Order of Sheriff of Nottingham
“Daddy promised to let me have first swing,” Dot said.
Sophie looked at her three bunk mates in horror.
They didn’t need to read the fairy tales. They came from them.
They were born to kill.
“A princess and a Reader,” Hester said. “The two worst things a human can be.”
“Even the Evers don’t want her,” said Anadil. “Or the fairies would have come by now.”
“But they have to come!” Sophie cried. “I’m Good!”
“Well, you’re stuck here, dearie,” Hester said, plumping Sophie’s pillow with a kick. “So if you want to stay alive, best try to fit in.”
Fit in with witches! Fit in with cannibals!
“No! Listen to me!” Sophie begged. “I’m Good!”
“You keep saying that.” In a flash, Hester seized her by the throat and pinned her over the open window. “And yet there’s no proof.”
“I donate corsets to homeless hags! I go to church every Sunday!” Sophie howled above the fatal drop.
“Mmm, no sign of fairy godmother,” Hester said. “Try again.”
“I smile at children! I sing to birds!” Sophie choked. “I can’t breathe!”
“No sign of Prince Charming either,” said Anadil, grabbing her legs. “Last chance.”
“I made friends with a witch! That’s how Good I am!”
“And still no fairies,” Anadil said to Hester as they lifted her up.
“She belongs here, not me!” Sophie wailed—
“No one knows why the School Master brings you worthless freaks into our world,” hissed Hester. “But there can only be one reason. He’s a fool.”
“Ask Agatha! She’ll tell you! She’s the villain!”
“You know, Anadil, no one’s told us the rules yet,” Hester said.
“So they can’t punish us for breaking them,” Anadil grinned.
They lifted Sophie over the edge. “One,” said Hester.
“No!”
